Mechanical stabilizer

ABSTRACT

1. In a munition having a body and a rear base, said rear base having a floor and an outer flange defining a recess, THE IMPROVEMENT COMPRISING, IN COMBINATION THEREWITH, A REAR STABILIZER FOR CONTROLLING THE TRAJECTORY OF SAID MUNITION, SAID REAR STABILIZER COMPRISING A HELICAL COIL SPRING HAVING CONVOLUTIONS OF GRADUALLY INCREASING WIDTHS, SAID SPRING BEING ATTACHED AT ITS INNERMOST CONVOLUTION DIRECTLY TO THE CENTER REGION OF SAID FLOOR OF SAID RECESS, AND A COLLAPSIBLE FRUSTOCONICAL COVERING FOR SAID SPRING EXTENDING FROM THE INNERMOST TO THE OUTERMOST CONVOLUTION OF SAID SPRING, SAID SPRING AND COVERING BEING NORMALLY CONFINED IN COMPRESSED AND COLLAPSED CONDITION IN SAID RECESS AND HAVING THE PORTION OF THE COVERING WHICH SURROUNDS THE OUTERMOST CONVOLUTION OF SAID SPRING IN ENGAGEMENT WITH THE FLANGE OF SAID RECESS, AND SAID COVERING FORMING IN THE RELEASED POSITION OF SAID SPRING AN EMPTY HOLLOW ELONGATED INVERTED FRUSTOCONICAL STABILIZING SURFACE AT THE REAR OF SAID MUNITION; WHEREBY WHEN SAID MUNITION IS LAUNCHED, SAID SPRING WILL EXTEND ITSELF OUTWARDLY UPON CENTRIFUGAL FORCES GENERATED BY IN-FLIGHT MOVEMENTS OF SAID MUNITION.

United States Patent 1 Dusoe et al.

[ MECHANICAL STABILIZER [75] Inventors: George I). Dusoe; Joseph R.

Messineo, both of Patterson, NJ.

[73] Assignee: The United States of America as represented by theSecretary of the Army, Washington, DC.

[22] Filed: Oct. 18, I966 [21] Appl. No.: 588,279

[52] US. Cl. 102/4; 24413.3 [51] Int. Cl. F42b 13/32; F42b 25/00 [58]Field of Search 244/327, 3.3; 102/4, 56

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 46,490 2/1865 Orwig H 244/13X 3,007,4ll ll/l96l Piper et al. 244/13 X 3,494,284 2/1970 Gross l02/67FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 607,239 3/!926 France 244/327 PrimaryExaminerverlin R. Pendegrass Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Nathan Edelberg;Robert P.

Gibson; A. Victor Erkkila 1 June 10, 1975 EXEM PLARY CLAIM I. In amunition having a body and a rear base, said rear base having a floorand an outer flange defining a recess,

the improvement comprising, in combination said spring and coveringbeing normally confined in compressed and collapsed condition in saidrecess and having the portion of the covering which surrounds theoutermost convolution of said spring in engagement with the flange ofsaid recess, and said covering forming in the released position of saidspring an empty hollow elongated inverted frustoconical stabilizingsurface at the rear of said munition;

whereby when said munition is launched, said spring will extend itselfoutwardly upon centrifugal forces generated by inflight movements ofsaid munition.

3 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures PATENTEDJUH 10 I975 FIG.2.

FIG.|.

INVENTOR. JOSEPH R. MESSINEO GEORGE BY ffflMf GLYZ J? D. DUSOE J a. ZTTORN 1 MECHANICAL STABILIZER This invention relates to an apparatus foruse in an air-to-ground missile delivery system. More particular, thisinvention relates to an apparatus for selectively controlling theorientation of a gravitating airborne missile.

One of the conventional methods of delivering a disbursed pattern ofmissiles to a specified target is from a gravitating airborne carrierwhich is usually launched by means of artillery or from a fast movingaircraft. As the carrier reaches a predetermined point in itstrajectory, a mass of missiles are deployed in somewhat of a dispersedpattern in the air. However, as the missiles gravitate towards theground, some will oscillate, tumble or will become otherwise disorientedin their flight. This becomes a problem in the case of a missileactivated by an impact functioning fuze. These missiles must be properlyoriented or the detonators thereof will not be activated upon impactwith the ground.

In the past, the orientation means for such missiles consisted in metalvanes, extended lengths of ribbon or merely the specially designed outerconfiguration of the missile itself. These devices function to orientthe missile upon ejection from the carrier. However, in the case ofmechanically operated vanes, there is a varied time differential betweenthe ejection of the missile and the instant that the device reaches thefully operative state. As is apparent, this factor not only affects thetrajectory of the missile but also varies the ultimate location of theimpact area. Also, the point of deployment of the missiles must be ofsufficient height to insure successful operation of these devices priorto impact. It is also found that these devices are complicated and, inmany instances, defective or become defective in operation due to damagesustained in the collision of the missiles immediately after deployment.These devices are also comparatively heavy, difficult to manufacture andexpensive. As a result. the destruct capabilities of the pay-load areadversely affected due to the restricted weight-carrying capacity of theconventional carriers.

As for the extended ribbon type devices. they are somewhat simple tomanufacture and light in weight. However, they have a tendency to tangleor otherwise become disarranged in shape and knotted during operation.They are also unreliable in heavy winds or under other adverse weatherconditions such as rain or snow. Also, in the case of a missile with aspecially designed configuration having aerodynamic attributes, thedevice is usually difficult to manufacture and quite expensive whichlimits its use in wide spread field operations where exceedingly largequantities of missiles are utilized in every day activities.

The subject invention fulfills the needs of the art, as described above,by being effective at low elevations, inexpensive, light in weight,simpler in construction and use, and totally reliable under adverseconditions.

It is an object of this invention to provide an apparatus of improvedconstruction for use in an air-toground missile delivery system.

Another object is to provide an improved apparatus for use incontrolling the orientation, stabilization, deceleration, and trajectoryof a gravitating airborne missile.

A further object is to provide an apparatus for use in selectiveorientation of an airborne missile.

Other objects and many of the attendant advantages of this inventionwill be readily appreciated as the same become better understood byreference to the following detailed description when considered inconnection with the accompanying drawing wherein:

FIG. 1 is a side view, partially in section, of the device of thisinvention adapted in distended form to an im pact activated missile.

FIG. 2 is a side view, partially in section, of another embodiment ofthe device.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing the device in the compressedform in the accommodating space of the missile.

Similar numerals refer to similar parts throughout the several views.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the device is in the form ofa surfacecovered. helical shaped distensible orientation means 11 such as aspring and the like which is adapted to be attached, in a conventionalmanner, to the rear base ofa missile 12 at a point opposed in directionto the desired site of impact with the ground. As shown, thecircumvolution of the peripheral circuit of the helically shaped devicealong the longitudinal axis may be gradually increasing in value withrespect to its diameter, as in FIG. 1, or it may be substantiallyconstant in value as in FIG. 2. In either case, the outer circumscribingarea of the device may be covered with lightweight cloth or nylon 13and, in each case, the device is adapted to take the form of a helicoid14 in the compacted or compressed state without, in any way, disruptingits inherent ability to become distended or expanded in shape.

As shown in FIG. 3, the nylon covered helically shaped orientationdevice may be secured, in the helicoid form 13 in the accommodatingspace of the impact activated missile 12 during manufacture of themissile or at any time prior to storage in the carrier, by directlyattaching the innermost convolution of spring 11 to the center region ofthe recess 14 defined by the floor and a surrounding outer flange of therear base, so that the portion of the covering which surrounds theoutermost convolution of spring 11 engages said flange. Due to thevolumetric characteristics of the described device, in the helicoidform, comparatively less space is required to store the missile in thecarrier than is required with the conventionally available orientationdevices. As a result, the missiles adapted with the present device maybe placed in nestable alignment in a conventional carrier due to theconstruction of the device. In this way, the destruct capabilities orpayload of a conventional carrier, having restricted capacity in weightand volumetric size, may be substantially increased due to the fact thatthe light-weight device of this invention may be incorporated in thestructure or accommodating space of the missile itself.

In operation, the carrier of the missiles will be launched fromartillery or from a high speed aircraft. At a predetermined point in thetrajectory of the gravitating airborne missile, the plurality ofmissiles will be deployed in somewhat of a dispersed pattern in the air.As soon as the pressure upon the helicoid, incident to nesting, isreleased, the helicoid shaped device will immediately expand to its fulldistended length. As a result, the nylon covered peripheral area of thedistended helically shaped device will produce an empty hollow invertedfrustoeonical surface which, when exposed to the airstreams, will tendto orient the gravitating missile in the desired, upright, stabilizingposition accompanied by a drag, which will decelerate the missile andpositively control the trajectory of the missile. It has been found thatif a missile is adapted with the device of this invention, in the mannerdescribed and shown, such gravitating airborne missile will orientitself in all cases in an upright position in the air so that the siteof impact will be substantially in the detonating area of the impactactivated pin of the fuze.

It has also been found that at lower levels of elevation in the order of50 feet, a missile adapted with the present device will stabilize insubstantially less time thereby orienting the missile in the desiredmanner prior to impact. Due to the inherent nature ofa helical shapeddevice such as a compression spring, it will ex pand to its full lengthin less than about 1 second and will maintain the center of gravity ofthe missile in the upright state to achieve aerodynamic stability.However, the spring should be made of light-weight material so that theorientation of the missile does not vary from the desired attitude inspace. We have found that. in typical device for use with the mostcommon impact oriented missiles, the weight of the device should bebetween 010 to about 0.5 ounce and the length of the ex panded deviceshould be between 0.5 to 1 foot long. The compressive strength of suchdevice is preferable between 0.5 and 2 pounds per square inch and thethickness of the body should be between 0.03 and 0.125 inch depending onthe material the spring consists of.

The advantages accompanying the use of the device of this inventioninclude the fact that it is inexpensive to manufacture due to itsconstruction. A missile adapted with the present device may be nestablyaligned in the carrier increasing the destruct capabilities of theentire system. As a grenade or missile is deployed from a carrier, thereare several components of force acting on the missile itself. Theseinclude centrifugal force, gravity and a forward component of force dueto the velocity of the item. It has been found that, notwithstandingthese forces, the present device will orient the missile in the mostfavorable position for impact. It also provides accuracy of delivery toa specified target area by inducing a constant drag on the missilethroughout the trajectory thereof.

Obviously, many modifications and variations of the present inventionare possible in the light of the above teaching. It is therefore to beunderstood that within the scope of the appended claims, the inventionmay be practiced otherwise than as specifically described.

We claim:

1. In a munition having a body and a rear base, said rear base having afloor and an outer flange defining a recess,

the improvement comprising, in combination therewith, a rear stabilizerfor controlling the trajectory of said munition, said rear stabilizercomprising a helical coil spring having convolutions of graduallyincreasing widths, said spring being attached at its innermostconvolution directly to the center region of said floor of said recess,and a collapsible frustoconical covering for said spring extending fromthe innermost to the outermost convolution of said spring,

said spring and covering being normally confined in compressed andcollapsed condition in said recess and having the portion of thecovering which sur rounds the outermost convolution of said spring inengagement with the flange of said recess, and said covering forming inthe released position of said spring an empty hollow elongated invertedfrustoconical stabilizing surface at the rear of said munition;

whereby when said munition is launched, said spring will extend itselfoutwardly upon centrifugal forces generated by in-flight movements ofsaid munition.

2. The invention of claim 1, wherein said covering is fabric.

3. The invention of claim 1, wherein said covering is nylon.

1. In a munition having a body and a rear base, said rear base having afloor and an outer flange defining a recess, the improvement comprising,in combination therewith, a rear stabilizer for controlling thetrajectory of said munition, said rear stabilizer comprising a helicalcoil spring having convolutions of gradually increasing widths, saidspring being attached at its innermost convolution directly to thecenter region of said floor of said recess, and a collapsiblefrustoconical covering for said spring extending from the innermost tothe outermost convolution of said spring, saId spring and covering beingnormally confined in compressed and collapsed condition in said recessand having the portion of the covering which surrounds the outermostconvolution of said spring in engagement with the flange of said recess,and said covering forming in the released position of said spring anempty hollow elongated inverted frustoconical stabilizing surface at therear of said munition; whereby when said munition is launched, saidspring will extend itself outwardly upon centrifugal forces generated byin-flight movements of said munition.
 2. The invention of claim 1,wherein said covering is fabric.
 3. The invention of claim 1, whereinsaid covering is nylon.